I worked as a labor organizer in the US and this response is closest to the correct understanding of the law. Workers have a right to engage in "concerted activity" for the purposes of improving working conditions. However, when workers organize a union it needs to be certified as having a right to negotiate terms and conditions of employment on behalf of the workers, which is almost always done through a union election.
In the U.S. this is an exclusive right—a "unit" of workers can only have one certified bargaining agent, and that union must represent all workers in the bargaining unit. It's also illegal for the employer to negotiate with any party other than the recognized union.
To my understanding, this is different from Europe and can seem strange to Europeans. Understanding how this framework came about historically can be useful. Before the National Labor Relations Act, workers would strike in order to gain recognition and the right for the union to negotiate on their behalf. The NLRA election framework was an attempt to bring about "labor peace" by introducing orderly elections instead.
This was generally supported by a certain segment of capital who could afford it and saw the cost-benefit as worth it, especially finance capital who were much more favorable to New Deal politics, and opposed by others. On the workers' side, this has undoubtedly made it easier to win recognition from the employer, but some see it as having sapped workers' militancy over the long run by trading away pitched battles that revealed sharp class antagonisms for a more orderly bureaucratic process.
Hey Troy, I appreciate the response! I buy that you aren't motivated by this one city council position in particular. But we can't escape the fact that every policy decision exists in our particular reality and has material effects. There's no such thing as an ideologically-neutral electoral system, of all things, because a change in system will select different candidates from the actual pool of existing candidates or types of candidates.
Wealthy elites don't care what policy choices are optimal in terms of some abstract desiderata[1], they push for the policies that will be best for them materially. Working people need to understand that and behave the same way.
To take a different example: Republicans in the U.S. push for voter ID laws because they favor Republican election outcomes. This is pretty well understood. A voter ID law appears on its face ideologically neutral. It still is meant to bring about a certain outcome, and should be fought on the basis of that outcome. It doesn't even matter if somebody pushing the legislation has a different intention, even a noble one!
---
[1] Incidentally, I'm not really sure how well AV even meets those desiderata. For example, does a non-Condorcet system really reflect voters' preferences most accurately? Later-no-harm is another criteria that comes to mind. I'm skeptical of the claim that AV is really "more reflective" in some objective sense than FPTP.
That's a reasonable point, Ann Davison's victory could definitely be a factor as well. And I don't know much about the background of the petitioners here; I think it's likely they're sincere in their belief in the same way that the original recall petitioner probably is.
That doesn't change the fact that big business in Seattle would love to see Kshama out of office, and if she survives her recall and this initiative gains traction, I'm confident they'd throw their resources behind it to get another bite at the apple. With the exception of Sawant, they have a city government that works for them, and I think they'd prefer the middle path to rocking the boat in either direction.
Despite the claim that this isn't political, it's very difficult not to see this in light of the fact that Seattle's city council has the only elected Marxist in the U.S.
Kshama Sawant fought for the $15 minimum wage, the Amazon tax, numerous renters' rights protections, a ban on police use of chemical weapons against protestors, and is now continuing the fight for rent control. She's currently facing a right-wing recall campaign because big business was unable to defeat her in the 2019 election, despite Amazon dumping $1.5 million into various races for citywide office.
A few here have remarked that approval voting tends to select more "moderate" candidates over "extremes." This isn't a neutral preference, it's obviously ideological, and targeted at one specific legislator in Seattle. Voters should reject this measure as a transparent attack on the most effective and sincere fighter for working people in the country.
Full disclosure, Kshama and I are both members of Socialist Alternative. I may be limited in my ability to respond today, as I'm rushing right after work to a volunteer shift to make sure she stays in office. I'll try my best to check in occasionally!
In the U.S. this is an exclusive right—a "unit" of workers can only have one certified bargaining agent, and that union must represent all workers in the bargaining unit. It's also illegal for the employer to negotiate with any party other than the recognized union.
To my understanding, this is different from Europe and can seem strange to Europeans. Understanding how this framework came about historically can be useful. Before the National Labor Relations Act, workers would strike in order to gain recognition and the right for the union to negotiate on their behalf. The NLRA election framework was an attempt to bring about "labor peace" by introducing orderly elections instead.
This was generally supported by a certain segment of capital who could afford it and saw the cost-benefit as worth it, especially finance capital who were much more favorable to New Deal politics, and opposed by others. On the workers' side, this has undoubtedly made it easier to win recognition from the employer, but some see it as having sapped workers' militancy over the long run by trading away pitched battles that revealed sharp class antagonisms for a more orderly bureaucratic process.